Moon, Ahn Revive Opposition Merger Before Korean Election

Moon Jae-In, left of the Democratic United Party and independent hopeful Ahn Cheol-Soo, South Korean presidential candidates. Photographer: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- South Korean opposition lawmaker
Moon Jae In and independent Ahn Cheol Soo decided to resume
talks on fielding a single candidate in next month’s
presidential election after the head of Moon’s party resigned to
try to end a four-day stalemate.

The two candidates yesterday decided after a 30-minute
meeting in Seoul to resume working-level talks on merger terms
today. Lee Hae Chan, the leader of Moon’s Democratic United
Party, yesterday resigned, saying he hoped the move would
convince Ahn and the people that the party is willing to make
sacrifices to reform politics.

Both candidates are struggling to overtake ruling New
Frontier Party nominee Park Geun Hye in polls ahead of the Dec.
19 election to decide who succeeds President Lee Myung Bak as
head of Asia’s fourth-biggest economy. Moon’s willingness to
sacrifice an ally to persuade Ahn may bolster his chances to
emerge as the standard bearer, analyst Jeong Han Wool said.

“Moon and his party made a pretty big gesture yesterday,
and this played to Moon’s advantage,” said Jeong, deputy
director of the Center for Public Opinion Research at East Asia
Institute in Seoul. “They are cutting it close, with less than
a month left, but it looks like Park Geun Hye will face what she
dreads, a two-way race.”

Poll Watching

The breakthrough ended a hiatus that began with Ahn
suspending negotiations on Nov. 15 to protest the spreading of
false information about his election strategy, calling it
“classic example of old politics.” Moon today said that
opinion polls will help determine who becomes the unified
nominee before the Nov. 26 deadline for candidacy registration
with the National Election Commission.

“I cannot on my own concede the candidacy, as I have been
nominated and backed by my party to represent them,” Moon said
today. “The only way for me to drop out is my ratings fall to a
point where it is objectively deemed difficult for me to carry
on.”

Moon overtook Ahn for second place in a three-way race
against Park with a rating of 28.3 percent to Ahn’s 21.5
percent, according to a poll released yesterday by Seoul-based
Realmeter and JTBC, a cable-television affiliate of newspaper
JoongAng Ilbo. A previous survey reported Nov. 17 had Moon at
25.4 percent and Ahn at 25.5 percent.

Single Candidate

Park still leads with 44.7 percent, according to
yesterday’s poll, which surveyed 1,500 respondents Nov. 17-18
and had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points. It showed
44.6 percent of respondents favoring Moon over 36.1 percent
backing Ahn as the single united opposition candidate.

Park, 60, is the eldest daughter of late dictator Park
Chung Hee and served as his first lady after her mother was
killed in a 1974 assassination attempt by North Korea on her
father. She said Nov. 5 that she’ll seek to meet with North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un to improve relations should she win.

Ahn, 50, is the founder of Ahnlab Inc., South Korea’s
biggest antivirus software maker. The one-time medical doctor
and Wharton MBA holder declared his candidacy in September
having never run for office.

Ahn said today in a speech in Seoul that North Korea
developing nuclear weapons is “not acceptable,” as he pledged
to boost South Korea’s relations with China, Russia, India and
Southeast Asian nations.

Moon, 59, is a former human-rights lawyer who was jailed in
1975 for leading street protests against the government of
Park’s father. He later served as chief of staff to President
Roh Moo Hyun, who held office from 2003 to 2008.